GLASGOW'S BANDY-LEGGED CHILDREN: 403 



very little in the twenty-four hours, and is not long enough to produce 

 the deformity. Moreover, not many miles away, at Saltcoats, on the 

 Ayrshire coast, all the women carry their babies in precisely the same 

 manner as in Glasgow, and yet not a single case of rachitis or osteo- 

 malacia is to be seen there. The people of Saltcoats, however, are 

 Scotch, The same method of carrying babies is quite common over all 

 the south and west of Scotland, yet nowhere else in the country, ex- 

 cept in Glasgow, are so many horrible cases of rachitis or of osteoma- 

 lacia to be seen. 



Some persons, observing that many of the Glasgow mothers, 

 whether married or unmarried, are workers in the mills — cotton, 

 woolen, linen, and jute mills — are of the opinion that there is some- 

 thing in their employment that promotes bandy - leggedness. But, 

 so far as I could observe, the children of such women were no more 

 rickety than the children of women in other occupations. The 

 mills in Great Britain are, so far as their hygienic condition is con- 

 cerned, far better provided for than the mills of any other country in 

 the world ; they are looked after by the Government, and regularly 

 visited by a competent and responsible inspector. Mill-workers have, 

 nowadays, an easy, comfortable, and healthful occupation, and really 

 there is nothing in mill-work to deform or injure either the women or 

 their children. 



Many lay the blame for the trouble upon the air. Glasgow air 

 does not appear to be different from other air, and is certainly no worse 

 than that of a dozen other manufacturing cities where no unusual 

 bandy-leggedness exists. Consideration of this point may, then, be dis- 

 missed at once. 



The writer believes that an adequate explanation for the affliction 

 may be found in the habits of the Irish people. It is well known that 

 all over the south and west of Ireland thousands of the peasantry live 

 in mud cabins, which are for the most part several feet below the level 

 of the surrounding soil, many of them destitute of windows, doors, and 

 chimneys, the places of which are supplied by simple holes. The cabins 

 are warmed by a peat-fire in the center of the burrow under the hole in 

 the roof. The fuel is got from the adjacent bog, and its smoke would 

 speedily blear and blind the eyes of any stranger who might venture 

 to go inside. Such holes are continually damp, and are hot-beds (or 

 rather cold beds) of rheumatism, rickets, osteomalacia, and various 

 other diseases. There are generally half a dozen or more miserable 

 children, huddled together for mutual warmth in the cold months, 

 along with the parents, in addition to whom there is generally at least 

 one full-grown pig, with perhaps a litter of young ones. The food of 

 the family consists chiefly or entirely of potatoes, and it is seldom 

 indeed, that any of the members see bread or meat, although occa- 

 sionally a little fish, in the shape of eels from the adjacent "bog- 

 holes," may find its way to their mouths. 



